Benefits From Going To War: The Evils Of War

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No one truly benefits from going to war. Everyone involved either suffers mentally, physically, or both. This is shown in the stories “Hiroshima” by John Berger and “Soldiers’ Stories” by various soldiers that fought in Iraq. Both of these stories explain the evils of war and their effects on people; however, one story illustrates how war affects the average civilian while the other illustrates how war affects the average soldier.
From reading these two stories you can conclude that they share similar views on how war truly affect people, whether they are actually fighting or just an innocent citizen in the country that is fighting. Innocent people are often the target in war. Governments are willing to use anyone in order to advance towards …show more content…

This story tells how a soldier is forced to fight in day to day combat against an enemy that is not necessarily their personal enemy. The soldiers also explain how they are forced to kill the innocent native Iraqis that were forced to fight Saddam Hussein’s battle against the Americans. The soldiers even tell how they are often left in the dark about the government’s plans to take down a country. They never know the exact date of when they are to report home; they have to make assumptions based on how many flag covered coffins there were containing dead soldiers to predict when the war was winding down. The Iraqi soldiers describe how death becomes the new norm; soldiers tend to lose the value behind taking someone’s life after so many years fighting in combat. The various soldiers express how they feel: There is guilt for taking another man’s life, guilt for being okay when their fellow soldiers suffering from serious combat accidents, and guilt for reporting home while the rest of the combat team is still stuck fighting in the Iraq War. In conclusion, “Soldiers’ Stories” and “Hiroshima” are very similar; they use the victims’ stories of war to send you on a journey through different viewpoints about the evils of war. John Berger’s story “Hiroshima” focuses on how the evils of war affect the average innocent civilian while “Soldiers’ Stories” by various authors illustrate how the evils of war affect

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